The deferred prosecution is intriguing as "when a company enters into a DPA with the government, or an NPA for that matter, it almost always must acknowledge wrongdoing..." and the clock is ticking with the statute of limitations up at the end of July.

And as so often happens, what we said this morning, turned out to be spot on: "All of which simply means that Cohen will merely convert into a "friend, employees and family" office: at last check just the employees had billions of their own cash invested in the hedge fund."

In other words, while implicitly admitting guilt for trading on illegal information for decades, the government will be generous enough to leave Stevie his ill-gotten $8+billion, which like Soros, will be the sole source of cash in the former hedge fund titan's ongoing attempts to corner assorted "expertly networked" markets. You know, with "information arbitrage"...

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*COHEN SAID TO HAVE DISCUSSED DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT*COHEN SAID TO CONSIDER RETURNING OUTSIDE INVESTORS' MONEY*COHEN SAID TO CONSIDER CONTINUING AS A FAMILY OFFICE*COHEN SAID TO CONSIDER RUNNING FUND FROM CELL

BTW Corzine was just the fall guy for JPM ..we couldn't have Walll Street Golden Balls(up) be first to hang now could we

obviously there's a US Ivy League pecking order. Being a Democrat, socialist and the No.1 top economic advisor to President Bumma like Corzine does not rank higher than the by day walking and talking like a capitalist Jamie D who by night nips down to the State-aid candy store for taxpayer handouts for his gambling losses

These vapid apologetics draw Maria Bartiromo’s stammering, nodding approval: As you said earlier, stupidity does not mean criminality.

Bethany: Greed and venality do not make a criminal case.

There are two remarkable items about Bethany’s performance. First, note the air of confidence she exudes when in fact (as will become clear) she has essentially no idea of what she is talking about (hence the expression “a journalistic understanding”). Second, note that Bethany is apparently unaware that the man she is debating on-air, Professor William K. Black, knows a lot about what she is talking about. In fact, he is perhaps the nation’s foremost expert on precisely the issue she and Maria are trying to spin to Goldman’s behalf: the federal prosecution of white collar crime at financial institutions.

Professor Black continues like a gentle professor with two weak students: Critical area here…. First, I’m the type of person that was involved in training the FBI agents, the assistant US attorneys, serving as the expert witness in these successful prosecutions where we had a 90% successful rate. Um, clearly people are not understanding fraud mechanisms. In accounting control fraud, the firm – loses – money. Indeed that is one of the defining elements because the way you maximize it is by making bad loans. And Goldman did make liar’s loans, it did it through subsidiaries, and Goldman purchased loans that it knew to be fraudulent, and it packaged them and sold them as if they were good loans. This belief that this is the first virgin crisis in which fraud was not driving it is amazing. Nobody believes it about the savings and loan debacle. No one believes it about the Enron era fraud. And given what you’ve seen in the last three weeks, how can you believe it out of the current…”

Bethany appears to panic slightly then, unable to respond substantively to a single one of Black’s arguments, simply locks into a repetitive, droning regurgitation of the talking points she just delivered a moment earlier (which amplifies my suspicion that some Goldman PR flack gave them to her to memorize). Behold Bethany McLean’s verbatim analysis of legal culpability in the greatest financial collapse of our lifetime (so far):

Maria, I think there was a hue and a cry and a lot of political pressure to bring charges in this case. And I think that if they could have, they would have. And I don’t think that any of our interests are served… I think it’s just as dangerous to bring a case that shouldn’t be made as to not bring a case that should be made. Neither one helps with the integrity of the financial system. I agree – peoples’ behavior during this crisis was unethical, it was abhorrent, it was every word you can come up with for ‘wrong.’ But if you are going to bring a case against Goldman Sachs you have to bring a case against every single other Wall Street firm as well as every mortgage originator as well as every home owner who lied on his or her mortgage application. You cannot single out one firm and say we are going to charge Goldman and we’re not bringing charges against everybody else. That’s wrong.

Maria Bartiromo: That’s a great point.

William Black (like a professor exasperated with dull students he can no longer humor): No, it’s not a great point. It’s a terrible point. You’ve got to start with somebody. Your first prosecution is always your first prosecution. And you can always say where there’s been an epidemic of fraud…”

Enabling and furthering 'God's Work' can be daunting for some of the useful idiots, shills and shiksa presstitutes dotting the modern landscape.

if your modus vivendi is to trade on inside info...and that's what you're agreeing to admit to vis a vis the Feds (and if this actually happens great job Feds) then obviously you will be as pecuniary as possible in naming names. something tells me though..."once a tear...it's open the floodgates" as well. definitely want to avoid the Big House that's fer sure if your SAC et al. if your the Fed's though...that's exactly where you want your mark. story still unfolding...it will be interesting to see the details as "God" closes in on "mo' money."

I am not sure how Stevie Cohen going from a fund that accepts outside money to one that caters to familiy and friends changes the fact that he is most likely the slimiest of the slime ... slime even regards him as slime. I say prosecute him to the max! Take away every single asset that he and the family and friends have accumulated through his illegal and unethical acts and then send him to Guantanemo to get buggered over and over again by Arabs (although they woul probably consider his "pork" too unclean to touch)... making sure that the key to his cage gets lost in the process.